Realistic Perspective from Baumgardner: M has progressed, but not enough yet
I think Nick is pretty fair and also is one of the only MSM types who even tries to break down plays and look at data. Here are a couple of representative quotes:
"Jim Harbaugh's program is better today than a year ago. It's better today than when he walked into the Junge Center on Dec. 30, 2014, with an unprecedented amount of desperation-induced euphoria and fanfare."
"Michigan froze in the spotlight Saturday at Ohio State. There's no other way to spin it. There were issues and mishaps that simply hadn't happened over the course of the previous 10 games. The big stage will do that if you're not prepared for it and, for a variety of reasons, Michigan wasn't."
November 26th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^
Really posed as clickbait on Twitter
the fact is we have won big games this year. Two Top-15 matchups and 3 total over ranked teams. You wouldn’t know that from how it was tweeted.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:52 AM ^
Time of game rankings are stupid. Michigan state and Wisconsin are both very clearly not good this year.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:58 AM ^
I like how people change their interpretations of what big games are week to week to fit their narrative
Not our fault what those teams do after we beat them.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^
Or maybe you're the one doing this? Going back over the season, you can't strut your stuff over two wins vs. 7-5 teams.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^
What about the 42-7 win over #14 PSU who is now ranked higher than they were when we beat them?
I’m sure I’ll hear some bullshit about how that doesn’t count because Franklin draws dicks on his notebooks during games.
The game was awful. I don’t need to deal with this negativity making it even worse. I’m gonna step away from the site for a bit until people calm down and realize we’re a top-10 program and team.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:14 AM ^
Michigan is definitely a top 10 program. But it was made clear on Saturday they don’t have what it takes to be a top 5 program.
Saban figured it out years ago when Texas A&M and Auburn ran all over his defense and his ball control offense didn’t work. Then he hired Kiffin and the rest is history.
The defensive issues can be fixed but they need to modernize their offense the way Alabama did so they can compete in a shootout.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:55 PM ^
Lane Kiffin could be available soon...….
November 26th, 2018 at 4:06 PM ^
Really??? Saban was on the decline until Lane Kiffin showed up? That's hilarious! You mean the Lane Kiffin who went 5-7 this year at FAU? The same guy that failed at Tennessee, Southern Cal and with the Raiders? He's got some offensive chops but if his name wasn't Kiffin he'd be coordinating offense at some place like South Dakota State.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:24 AM ^
That was a good win. One good win does not make a satisfactory season.
November 26th, 2018 at 4:04 PM ^
Any win over MSU is a good win, so that makes 2.
November 26th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
Exactly. We're a top ten program insomuch as we're solidly in the #7-#10 spots of that order.
At this point under Harbaugh, I think we can expect about half of years to be fringe Top 10 (like this year), and the other half to be fringe Top 25 (like last year). That's very good. It's also decidedly not elite. And it's most definitely not warranting a Top 3 paid coaching staff.
All of these things can be true.
November 26th, 2018 at 12:58 PM ^
No...beat Ohio State and win a couple of CC games and we emerge into the Top 5...it's really no different than it was under Bo...beat Ohio State, win the Big Ten championship and the playoff stuff will sort itself out.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^
As disappointing as this season is it offers one great source of optimism: it looks like the OL is finally on the right track. I expect M to be somewhere in the top 10 from now on.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:56 PM ^
Man, that dicks on notebooks bit was GOLD. I’m at work and can’t stop giggling like a school girl. Well done.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:08 AM ^
Both are being too dogmatic here. There are no firm rules here, circumstances change throughout the season. If we played Nebraska in November, we weren't going to win 56-10, maybe 42-28.
Wisconsin with Hornibrook probably goes 9-3 instead of 7-5; Michigan State probably is a 7-5 team. You have to look at each situation individually.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
It's not our fault but you can't claim you beat good competition if those teams shit the bed the rest of the season.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:58 AM ^
While I agree, time of game rankings are what determine the winner's ranking at the time. People don't go back and say "well, Wisconsin wasn't very good it turns out so we're going to drop you from 4th to 10th because that's where you would have been had we known Wisconsin would only win 7 games."
November 26th, 2018 at 4:18 PM ^
I think also that there is the fact that for some of these teams, PSU and MSU in particular, they desperately wanted to beat us to legitimize their seasons. They were good wins.
In College football momentum and enthusiasm matters, as Purdue showed against OSU.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
Penn State is the only “big” game we won. Michigan State almost lost to Rutgers and Wisconsin lost to Minnesota. Laughable to call those big wins now. Let’s see if we win our bowl game this year and we can add another big win.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
MSU historically quits playing football if they lose to Michigan mid-season. I never consider their performance after our game.
Wisconsin was dealt injuries...we got to benefit from some but not all.
Penn St is a fine win.
We need to beat OSU before anyone is happy.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^
we've narrowed the priorities down. It looks like the MSU rivalry is finally getting back to normal. now we focus straightening out O$U.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:59 AM ^
LOL, Wisconsin just lost @home to Minnesota and MSU beat Rutgers by 4. Both finished 7-5 and out of the rankings. Wouldnt be surprised if both get wrecked in the bowl game. They were both necessary wins, not impressive or anything we should beat our chest about
November 26th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^
Wisconsin also didn't have a healthy Qb after we played them. So it's not surprising that they had an awful finish to the season.
On the other hand, Nebraska was playing like a 8-9 win team by season's end.
It goes both ways. You have to look at each win in context of the moment in happened, and also how those team's seasons progressed.
Also, if you're whinging about how we didn't beat anybody - ok, let's look at it. We destroyed Wisconsin, PSU and MSU. If they're as bad as you think they are, then we beat them how they should have been beaten. We laid a big fat egg on Saturday, no two ways about it. But to discredit our entire body of work is just stupid.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^
And they lost to fucking BYU WITH Hornibrook.
Wisconsin is, was, and will remain total ass this season.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:40 PM ^
Wisconsin wasn't a top 15 win, never said they were. But they are also probably better than 7-5 because the B1G West is shit and most teams in that division are probably worse than BYU. Probably beat N'W and Minnesota with a healthy Hornibrook.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:23 PM ^
You are correct. However they were picked to Ben one of the finalists in the four team playoff preseason, by everyone!
November 26th, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^
And OSU lost to a shitty Purdue team and almost lost to Maryland... who beat Texas... who beat Oklahoma...
whatever man, don't let me interfere with your negativity.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:19 AM ^
Yeah, umm, this is a good and realistic take. Michigan played like shit on Saturday, they weren't prepared for a big game, they've rarely been prepared for big games in the Harbaugh era and Baumgardner is not a villain for pointing out the obvious.
He acknowledges the program has imporved and answered a lot of questions, but they failed HARDCORE this past weekend. If you have a problem with that, I really don't know what to tell you.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:43 AM ^
Rabbit21, I have to agree with you. If you look at the last two games Michigan has played on the biggest stage (Last years Bowl game against SC and this year agains OSU) Michigan has looked outclassed in every facet. Most importantly, the team looks ill prepared and the Coaching has been more than just suspect.
November 26th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^
I'm with your primary sentiment, but last year's bowl game was hardly a big stage.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:31 PM ^
ND was a bigger stage than last year's bowl game....awwww crap...your point still holds true.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^
Harbaugh has had some good wins. For sure. No doubt about it and arguing against that fact is stupid.
But, Harbaugh has yet, after 4 years, to get that stake in the ground win. A win against a team that truly is a pivot point.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^
WD, you just always have issue any time someone doesn’t write something only positive about UofM, and think that’s more the issue
November 26th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^
It comes down to recruiting. OSU had a more talented roster. Yes it had underperformed to this point in the year but they were top 5 in the preseason for a reason and still had a top 5 offense this year.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^
November 26th, 2018 at 11:44 AM ^
Harbaugh took over a team that had over 20 players that were either drafted or made an NFL roster. About 25% of his roster had NFL talent. That is not insignificant and in the very least gives a coach enough runway to get his program up to speed by years 3 and 4.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^
Agree Albatross. Harbaugh had more people drafted that year than any other team. Should have beaten OSU that year. Don't care about a stupid spot. Just win.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:30 PM ^
Stop with this started from scratch crap. You'd think Michigan is the only major program to suffer bad years in college football and have to rebound. Oklahoma, USC, Alabama, NOTRE DAME all have. Guess who's gone 12-0 twice in the last 7 years?
November 26th, 2018 at 10:56 AM ^
That roster struggled against damn near every team they played. Michigan State made their offense a joke for 3 quarters
They dominated because they had a better gameplan and a better coach
November 26th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
It's more than recruiting.
The talent disparity was not 62-39. There was a bigger talent disparity last year, and that game was close in the 4th quarter.
There were coaching screwups up & down the field in how to use the talent we have. Certainly getting super fast safeties like Daxton Hill is key; but we need to use him (and everyone else) appropriately for what OSU is doing. That didn't happen on Saturday.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
Agreed. Think back to 2016 when Peppers came in on offense and was used so predictably. No thought it seemed of using him in consecutive downs, varied formations, etc., to try and expose Ohio State weaknesses against his athleticism. It reminded me of the game when Denard came in and everyone knew he wasn't going to throw so Ohio State just keyed the run. Stop being so damn predictable!
This team has too many weapons in Peoples-Jones, Black, Collins, Bell, Evans and Thomas, players with exceptional speed, to not have utilized them in more creative ways on offense that capitalized on their talents... just like Ohio State successfully executed.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:25 AM ^
Please don't bring up the Pepcat. That was the canary in my coal mine from "Wow, our offense is so creative" to "Why the hell are we doing *that* play, that way, yet again?!"
November 26th, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
Purdue didn’t have a better roster than OSU
November 26th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
And OSU would beat Purdue if they played 9 out of 10 times. There is a reason it was considered an upset.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^
But OSU played a lot of teams this year, and they didn't boat race anyone of consequence like they did us. They literally played Michigan State and Maryland (two common opponents, whom we beat by double digits) earlier this month and it was nothing like The Game.
OSU saw what Indiana did and said, "Hell, we have a better QB and better WRs -- we can do that, but better!" and did it over and over (with some variations) until we stopped them (which was never).
UM saw what Maryland did to OSU on defense and....avoided it completely. E.g., did we run *one* jet sweep? I stopped watching after awhile, so maybe I missed it, but I do know Bell and DPJ got zero carries.
That's all coaching.
November 26th, 2018 at 12:06 PM ^
The reason is that Purdue’s coaches actually exploited OSU’s weaknesses
November 26th, 2018 at 2:05 PM ^
Saturday was also a 1 out of 10 game. Not that we lost, but the way it happened.
I will say that I am very disappointed by the approach taken by our coaches on both offense and defense. No f&cking idea where our pass rush and all of the new plays we developed throughout the season went.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:55 AM ^
Wilton Speight voice: Who gives a damn what Nick Baumgardner thinks?
(I do. I think he does a really good job.)
November 26th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
I don’t get the hate on him from some around here, one of the best beat reporters in the country and will probably get a new job and a raise somewhere else soon